


Finding Another Way

by Pennygirl612



Category: White Collar
Genre: Angst, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-15 00:58:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16923591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pennygirl612/pseuds/Pennygirl612
Summary: Elizabeth slammed the back door a little harder than she actually meant to.  She wasn’t sorry if it left Peter with the impression she was angry.  While furious at Peter, she was actually far more scared; terrified at what the future might hold for them both.This could be viewed as a missing scene from Season 5 Episode 9 "No Good Deed".  It's my take on what happened to convince Peter not to turn Neal in for stealing the coins.





	Finding Another Way

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimed: I do not own White Collar. I did use some direct quotes from "No Good Deeds."

Finding Another Way

Elizabeth slammed the back door a little harder than she actually meant to. She wasn’t sorry if it left Peter with the impression she was angry. While furious at Peter, she was actually far more scared; terrified at what the future might hold for them both. No, she corrected herself. There was a third party she couldn’t forget about either and he was likely feeling just as nervous and scared as she was right now. 

Elizabeth started to pull out her phone to call him, but just as quickly dismissed the idea laying the phone down on the kitchen counter. To occupy her nervous hands, she poured a healthy size glass of Bordeaux. Taking a small sip, Elizabeth barely tasted the lush velvety liquid as her mind continued to race. 

Pacing the kitchen, her thoughts turned to Peter back in jail, awaiting indictment on Senator Pratt’s murder. “You’re going to come home to me,” she had said while holding her husband’s hands tightly in her own. “I will. I promise,” he had answered back but she remembered how his voice had cracked and how his eyes had betrayed him. They both had known the emptiness of that promise with the evidence against him both overwhelming and damning.

It’s what had led her to speak to Neal; hoping and praying there was some miracle he could perform; some rabbit he could pull from his hat. “Do whatever you have to do, okay?” she had asked. “Okay,” Neal had answered his voice soft and solemn. 

Taking another sip of wine, Elizabeth closed her eyes and sighed. Both had known exactly what she was asking from him at the time. What she hadn’t known was the price he would pay both then and now. But even if she had known, would it have mattered to her? She had just wanted her husband back. And if Neal had known the ultimate outcome, would he have done anything different? 

Staring absently at the back door, Elizabeth wasn’t sure what she would say if Peter chose that moment to come back inside. He had all but made it clear to her that under no circumstances could he condone Neal’s behavior despite what it would cost him—what it would cost them all. For Peter, the issue was very much black and white. And there was the difference between the two men. While both did what they thought right, they just didn’t see the world the same way. 

Peter’s words resounded in her head. “I’m sorry. I swore I would never put you through this again.” At least he had looked somewhat apologetic. And maybe she should have been more sympathetic to his obvious struggles, but she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. 

“Are you willing to give up everything we’ve built?” He acted as if the answer was obvious, hurt even that he had to explain it to her. “I need to be able to live with myself.” Anger flaring, she had snapped, “Then do what you have to do. Just be damn sure you need to do it!”

Swallowing the remainder of the wine, Elizabeth’s gaze fell on the phone on the counter. Picking it up, she carried it with her out of the kitchen and up the stairs to the bedroom. While she didn’t trust herself to talk to Peter, she felt almost compelled to call Neal. He was the only other person she could talk to about this. Before she could talk herself out of it, she dialed even though she really didn’t know what to say if he answered. 

“Elizabeth,” Neal answered on the third ring, his voice subdued. “I guess you’ve talked with Peter.”

She nodded, “Yes.”

“I’m sorry, I--”

“Stop!” she commanded. She hadn’t called to hear him apologize, and she certainly hadn’t called so that he could con her. She took a breath and called him out. “Are you? Are you really sorry?”

For a moment Neal didn’t speak. She knew he was contemplating what the correct response was supposed to be. She hoped he knew she wanted, needed honesty from him. Her emotions were too raw for anything else. 

“No,” he finally said. She heard the bitterness and anger contained in that one word response. “I only did--”

Elizabeth bit her lip as his voice trailed off. Even in his anger, he was still trying to protect her. “Say it,” she demanded.

Again Neal paused. When he at last answered all trace of bitterness gone. “I only did what you asked me to do.”

Elizabeth closed her eyes. She hadn’t been sure he would actually say it. Maybe that showed how upset Neal was at the moment, how much off his game Peter had thrown him or maybe it said something more about their relationship and that wasn’t something she was ready to consider. “I know,” she agreed before adding, “Thank you.”

“I only did what had to be done,” Neal continued as if he hadn’t heard her. “If there had been another way--”

Movement from the doorway drew her attention. There she found Peter staring hard as he leaned against the doorframe, arms folded across his chest, his tense body displaying his anxiety. Meeting his gaze, she continued to speak with Neal; not caring if Peter knew who she was speaking to. In fact, her temper flaring again, she was glad he was here. He needed to hear this.

“If there had been another way you would have found it,” she finished for him. “Jones or Diana would have found it. You did what they couldn’t.” Peter’s nostrils flared at that. Eyes blazing, she dared him to speak. 

“Peter doesn’t understand I couldn’t let him take the fall for my father. I tried to find another way. I really did, Elizabeth. I’m so sorry.”

Elizabeth’s heart broke hearing the desperation in Neal’s confession. “Neal, you have nothing to apologize for! I shouldn’t have put you in that position.” Elizabeth paused making sure Peter was listening. “But I’m glad you did what you did.”

“Peter’s not,” Neal said sadly. “I disappointed him...again.”

Elizabeth narrowed her eyes hearing the sadness in Neal’s voice. Her husband never should have left him alone in that state. “Peter’s not thinking too clearly at the moment. Right now, his overly righteous head is stuffed too high up his sanctimonious ass. In fact, it may require surgery.”

Elizabeth’s lips curved hearing Neal’s slightly choked off laughter. She immediately sobered seeing her husband’s barely contained restraint. It was probably best to get off the phone. “Get some rest Neal. Hopefully Peter will see things differently in the morning.”

Peter who had held his tongue in disbelief as his wife essentially thanked Neal for his criminal actions, waited impatiently for her to hang up the phone. Trying to remain calm, her words had cut him deeply. “Righteous head?! Sanctimonious ass?!”

Dropping the phone onto the bed, Elizabeth focused her full attention on Peter. “What would you call it?”

“Neal being Neal,” Peter said bitterly.

“You mean Neal being a criminal,” Elizabeth clarified.

“Exactly,” Peter agreed. “I have to face the fact that he’s never going to change. I’ve tried-”

“You’ve tried?!” Elizabeth shouted in disbelief cutting her husband off. “More like you’ve sanctioned it!”

“What does that mean?” Peter shouted back.

“You know exactly what that means!” Elizabeth took a breath and lowered her tone not wanting the neighbors to hear their argument. While she spoke softer, she did not change the intensity of her message. “This isn’t the first time he’s committed crimes under your watch. When it’s been convenient for you, when it’s benefited a case, you’ve turned a blind eye to his criminal ways. That’s been true from the very first case. Exigent circumstances? Really, Peter? You knew full well when you entered that warehouse you weren’t pursuing a fleeing suspect but it got you the evidence you needed to arrest Hagen. The Howell Clinic case? You not only ‘overlooked’ Neal breaking into the clinic but went so far as to cover it up by taking the surveillance tape! But hey, at the end of the day you got your arrest on that one too.”

“That’s not fair,” Peter started to argue. “There was a greater good.”

Elizabeth shook her head. “And stealing the music box? Going off anklet to point a gun at Fowler? Where was the greater good?”

“That’s different,” Peter countered immediately. “Neal wasn’t thinking clearly when he did those things and it wasn’t for his own gain. He did them for someone else, for someone he cared about.”

Elizabeth stared at him like he was a complete idiot. “Yeah, he did them for someone he cared about.” She gave Peter a minute to let that sink in before continuing, “So tell me Peter? What lesson were you trying to teach him? What lesson was he to learn other than that the ends really do justify the means?”

Peter started to speak, but found he had no words to argue against what she had said. Maybe he was an idiot. He remained silent as she handed him his pillow and ordered him out of the bedroom. 

“El?”

At his hurt look, Elizabeth softened her tone even more. “You need time to think about what you’re going to do. If you can’t forgive Neal and look past what he did—if you can’t live with yourself, then this is how it’s going to be, isn’t it? I’m going to be sleeping alone and you’re going to be sleeping in some other bed. Unless…”

“Unless?” Peter asked hopeful.

“You find another way.”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are always welcome especially since there doesn't appear to be many of us still writing/reading this fandom.


End file.
